EDITOR’S NOTE: This was on the site for the first time on October 10, 2019.
New Zealand was ready to represent in the slasher boom, thanks to this bonkers entry into the canon. It’s so violent that it was banned in Australia, a country that was originally made up of convicts.
Director David Blyth’s film predates Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste and seems like perhaps the first homegrown Kiwi horror film. Fangoria has called Blyth “New Zealand’s master of transgression,” and NZ Listener “one of the great mavericks of New Zealand film.” He also created the movies Angel Mine, Wound, Transfigured Nights and Moonrise, also known as Grampire, which stars “Grandpa” Al Lewis.
Years ago, Dr. Howell — a mad scientist trying to prolong human life past death — dealt with his harshest critic by mind-controlling that man’s son into shotgun blasting his parents.
Now, Michael Tucker (Michael Hurst, Iolaus from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys) has emerged from seven years in a mental ward. He has somehow acquired a loving girlfriend named Sandy and taken her on a holiday with their friends Jeannie and Lucas. However, that sojourn is really a front to get him to the remote island where Dr. Howell’s clinic is located and gain bloody revenge.
What follows is a descent into the island’s caves, where the doctor’s horrible creations live. That’s when the film turns into a strange mix of The Hills Have Eyes and Mad Max, packed with an equal mix of nihilism and gore.
I really can’t put this film into a single category. It’s kind of a slasher. It’s somewhat a punk rock biker post-apocalyptic film. And it’s also science fiction. It’s a glorious mess, all over the place and unafraid to have its hero completely fall apart by the end.
If you want to check this out, Severin has re-released it in the best quality ever available for home video. It’s packed with trailers, commentaries with Blyth and writer Michael Heath, and an interview with David Letch.
